Dale's Tails

Pit Bulls in the City

Trained to fight, or hardwired to attack?

By Steve Dale

“Pit Bulls are different; they’re like wild animals,” says Alan Beck. “They’re not suited for an urbanenvironment. I believe we should open our eyes and take a realistic approach to Pit Bulls.”

Those who condemn Pit Bulls and call for laws that ban them tend to be members of the general population, or most often, it seems, politicians. But Beck doesn’t fall into either category. He’s the director of the Center for the Human Animal Bond at Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine in West Lafayette, Indiana. In other words, he’s a top vet at one of the top veterinary schools in the country. And it’s exceedingly rare for an animal expert to vilify Pit Bulls. Beck’s comments, not surprisingly, are expected to cause ripples in the animal welfare community.

Beck isn’t actually calling for breed bans—he stops just short of that in his unusual new research, which has yet to be published. But he does differ from many of his colleagues. He says it’s in the veterinary and animal welfare communities’ best interest to consider restrictive legislation when it comes to Pit Bulls, who are known for their strong jaws and their use in dog fighting activities. But he acknowledges that his position is unpopular. “It’s just not politically correct in the animal world to favor breed restrictions,” he says.

Controversy about dangerous dogs seems to be in the media daily, and mostly it’s Pit Bull-type dogs who are in the spotlight. The public seems to have developed a fear of Pit Bulls; many communities around the world have banned the dogs, making it possible for a municipality to confiscate them and fine their guardians. Most animal welfare experts argue that these bans are not necessary. They say Pit Bulls are eager to please their humans, which is why they’re so easily trained as fighters. Most can be just as easily trained to be well-mannered and loving. Beck, however, is looking at Pit Bulls from another angle. He says it may not just be conditioning, but also genetics, that cause aggressive tendencies in these dogs.

What do the statistics say? It depends on how you interpret them. Beck cites a 2000 study by a panel of experts from the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Humane Society of the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control. The panel looked at fatal dog bite statistics from 1979 to 1998 (after 1998, the CDC stopped tracking which breeds of dogs are involved in fatal attacks; according to a CDC spokesperson, that information is no longer considered to be of discernable value). Using American Kennel Club and United Kennel Club statistics to determine the total number of Pit Bulls in the United States, Beck estimates they represent 1 percent of the 61.6 million dogs in America. Yet, his interpretation of the panel’s data indicates Pit Bulls are responsible for 19 percent of all fatal dog attacks. “That’s where Pit Bulls are out of whack,” he says. “Something is going on with them because the number of their fatal dog bites is so over-represented.”

Ironically, the panel itself had a different interpretation of the results. Animal behaviorist Randy Lockwood, vice president of research and education at the HSUS in Washington, D.C., said 100 percent of dogs involved in the fatal attacks were unaltered males; the overwhelming majority had been cited in previous complaints to law enforcement authorities. Other risk factors included dogs who roamed the neighborhood or dogs who were tethered. In other words, it appeared that the negligence of human guardians was a higher risk factor than the breed of the dog. “We learned breed-specific legislation is not the way to tackle the issue of dog bites,” says Dr. Julie Gilchrist of the CDC Injury Center in Atlanta, Georgia. “Instead, we should look at the people with those dogs responsible for the bites.”

“I believe the answer is to strengthen and then enforce laws that encourage responsible dog [guardianship] for all dogs of all breeds,” echoes Dr. Bonnie Beaver, a veterinary behaviorist in College Station, Texas, who has worked on breed-specific issues and is now the president of the AVMA. The thinking is if dogs of all breeds are spayed or neutered, officials enforce dangerous-dog laws already in place, and people are discouraged from tethering, the number of dog attacks will significantly decrease.

Catherine Hedges, founder of Furry Friends Foundation in Chicago, lends her voice to the panel’s position: She believes Beck’s data is flawed. Furry Friends is a shelter that successfully finds homes for Pit Bulls. In Chicago alone, it’s estimated there are 60,000 Pit Bulls. It’s conceivable there are at least two times as many Pit Bulls nationwide as Beck estimated, Hedges says. If that’s the case, then they’re responsible for a smaller percentage of dog bites than Beck calculated.

“It turns out that Pit Bulls are, in fact, absolutely the same as all dogs,” argues Dr. Karen Overall, a veterinary behaviorist and researcher in the psychiatry department at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine–Philadelphia, who bases her view on research she and others have conducted. What’s more, last summer, the Supreme Court of Alabama ruled there is no genetic evidence identifying Pit Bulls as inherently more dangerous than other dogs.

According to recent testing of 122 dog breeds by the American Temperament Testing Society, Pit Bulls achieved a passing rate 83.9 percent of the time. Golden Retrievers ranked 83.2 percent, Beagles at 78.2 percent, and Standard Schnauzers, a surprisingly low 63.5 percent. But Beck’s arguments can’t be dismissed: He brings much expertise to the table. He’s renowned for his decades of groundbreaking research on using animals in therapeutic settings, such as nursing homes. He’s also the co-author of Between Pets and People: The Importance of Animal Companionship (Purdue University Press), a well-respected book.

The truth is that Pit Bulls were indeed bred (using mostly various Bull Terrier breeds) to fight other dogs. “It’s true that some Pit Bulls are genetically hardwired to be dog-aggressive, but that has nothing whatsoever to do with being aggressive to people,” Beaver says.

The related Staffordshire Bull Terrier and American Staffordshire Terrier are legendary family dogs, the former dubbed the “nanny dog” for their devotion to children. Hedges says Pit Bulls were developed for dog fighting, but that also requires them not to turn on their people. She says, “I’m constantly surprised that even Pit Bulls abused by people have an amazing threshold for unconditional forgiveness.”

Lockwood adds, “Let’s look at the real source of the problem, irresponsible dog [guardians], or worse. So many Pit Bulls are now used for dog fighting by gangs or as a dangerous weapon. This is a social issue, it’s a law enforcement issue, but it’s not a dog breed issue.” But then why do attacks from Pit Bulls seem to be constantly in the news? In the next issue of Tails, we’ll explore details of Ontario, Canada’s recent ban on Pit Bull-type dogs, and whether or not breed restrictions put into place last summer in Boston, Massachusetts, have succeeded in lowering the incidence of dog bites. Beck and other experts will also offer views of how to lessen the number of attacks from Pit Bulls, and all dogs.